I've Heard It - What Is SteemTrail?
SteemTrail is a curation initiative that enlists the participation of semi-volunteer curators to seek out and recommend Steemit content to be voted on by all of the SteemTrail members via their curation trail listed on Streemian.com. The reason I referred to us as "semi-volunteer" is even though we're not directly compensated for our efforts via STEEM, SBD, Steem Power or other traditional crypto, we are given a newly created token listed on Open Ledger called Trail Coin, (TRAIL).
At this time, SteemTrail has in excess of 100 curators (and growing) that all vote for an officially curated article on Steemit. This can dramaticlly boost your total vote count, reputation score and overall Steemit reward if you're selected to part of the daily voting.
Also, anyone is encouraged to participate in SteemTrail themselves by visiting the following link to the site on Discord:
Currently, I'm the curator for the #comics tag on Steemit, but I encourage anyone else that wants to be part of growing the comics presence on Steemit to become a SteemTrail Curator and request to be assigned to the #comic tag. One of the tasks involved with curating a tag for SteemTrail is creating posts like this and hopefully encouraging current and potential comic fans to participate in the genre here on Steemit. In these posts, I want to examine the different types of comic related material that has, and could be posted on Steemit. This particular one will focus on **comic creators** specifically.
You Want To Create Your Own Comic - Are You Nuts :)!
I've tried my hand at creating some comics as well as stories around them and believe me, comics are tough. There's a lot of graphics work, either digital or hand drawing to be done just to get the imagery ready for viewing. Combine that with having to spin the story and sometimes creating even the basic of comic work can take take up a lot of time.
There's been plenty of great work done in comic format over the last seven or so months since Steemit launched. 
If you're someone who's interested in creating original comic art here on Steemit, then everyone should really encourage you do so. It's my belief that original comic works can be a true asset to the Steemit community, as well as draw comic fans from the outside internet world.
Some people are avid hand drawers, while others prefer creating their work digitally. Either way, in order to get what you've created ready for publication to the internet, you'll probably want to invest in either Adobe Photoshop, or the freely available GIMP works as well. The GIMP has plenty of instruction and add-ons to help you along the way and for the most part, can accomplish the same quality as Photoshop. PS is just a bit more mainstream but can produce excellent results. There is a price tag attached to Photoshop though, which is about $10 per month for their Creative Cloud version.
Why Would I Want To Publish My Comics On Steemit?
There's plenty that Steemit can offer a comic artist. Firstly, there's an established platform to work on. The editor can be a bit clumsy at times, but with some persistence and the excellent assistance available right here within Steemit, you'll be able to craft your posts to look quite well as a comic. Also, Steemit has no advertising at the time of this writing. This can be be beneficial to a comic artist in that attention to your work wont be distracted by a barrage of banner ads and popups.
Steemit also has an already established comic following to present your work to. The purveyors here are mostly fans but creators as well and are very welcoming to anyone who wants to contribute to the #comics tag. If you're wanting to test the waters with something you've created, then Steemit can be a great place to get feedback and reactions from real comic followers too.
Then there's the financial part. Participation in Steemit carries with it a per post payout at 24 hours and 30 days after posting your content. The 24 hour reward typically is the lion's share of your reward, with the 30 day amount represented by the votes you've received after the 24 hour cutoff. Exactly how much you'll make from your posts depends on who votes for your content, and to a lesser degree, when they vote for it. If someone with a lot of Steem Power likes your comic, and votes for it, you'll gain a higher reward than from someone with less.
The reward takes a few forms; STEEM (the main cryptocurrency), SBD (Steem Backed Dollars and a crypto in it's own right - pegged to the US Dollar), and also Steem Power (essentially STEEM that's held in your Steemit wallet and goes toward increasing your voting power on Steemit - it also receives interest currently 6% APR).
Even though the rewards aren't directly in cash, STEEM and the derivatives it's distributed in, are established cryptocurrencies that can be immediately traded for others like Bitcoin, Ethereum and BitShares. From there it's fairly simple and straightforward to convert them into cash via a site like Coinbase.
Steemit and SteemTrail very much wants to encourage anyone that has an interest in comics to participate in the community, as well as the #comics tag. Even if you're not a comic creator per se, there are several other genres of comic fandom you can participate in. Look for my next post:
Comic Book Reviews On Steemit.
Thanks for reading,
James